Chinese English as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Immunity and Mindfulness as Predictors of Their Work Engagement

Abstract

Considering the significant contribution of teachers’ professional triumph in the prosperity of students, the current study aims to investigate the existence of any relationship among three factors influencing teachers’ success: immunity, mindfulness, and engagement. Furthermore, we attempt to investigate whether English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ immunity and mindfulness can predict their work engagement. To this end, a Likert-scale questionnaire including items on teacher immunity, mindfulness, and work engagement was distributed to 582 EFL teachers in China through the WeChat application by employing a convenient sampling. To analyze the collected data, the Spearman Rho correlation index and linear multiple regression analysis are employed. The findings are that there does exist an indication of a direct relationship among EFL teachers’ immunity, mindfulness, and work engagement. Also, it is found that immunity and mindfulness can predict EFL teachers’ work engagement. The current study’s findings support the necessity of training language teachers to cope with the EFL context adversities.

Modeling the role of emotion regulation and critical thinking in immunity in higher education

“…Accordingly, the first null hypothesis stating that the English university teachers' CT does not predict their immunity was rejected. The contribution of higher order thinking skills to English teachers' immunity has been confirmed in the previous studies (e.g., Rahmati et al, 2019 ; Rahimpour et al, 2020 ; Atefi Boroujeni et al, 2021 ; Li, 2022 ). For instance, Rahimpour et al ( 2020 ) found that reflective teaching and language teachers' immunity were closely related.…”

“…Their findings reflected those higher levels of work engagement and L2 grit immune EFL teachers in the face of different challenges during their professional lives. In a recent study in China, Li ( 2022 ) concluded that the relationship between EFL teachers' immunity, mindfulness, and work engagement was significantly positive. This study also necessitates the use of training courses for language teachers to enhance EFL teachers' immunity development, mindfulness, and engagement.…”

“…Furthermore, it is generally accepted that CT has numerous benefits for teachers, but little is known about how it interacts with two other essential constructs, i.e., language teacher ER and immunity, especially in higher education. Leafing through the existing literature reflects that the possible relationship between ER, CT, and immunity has not been brought to the foreground of research foci (Gross and Thompson, 2007 ; Burić et al, 2017 ; Rahimpour et al, 2020 ; Sadeghi et al, 2020 ; Li, 2022 ), particularly in higher education (Fathi and Derakhshan, 2019 ; Chang, 2020 ; Chang and Taxer, 2020 ; Heydarnejad et al, 2021a ; Amirian et al, 2022 ). To this end, the present study sought to propose a model to display the contribution of CT as well as ER to immunity in higher education (see Figure 1 ).…”

“…Language teacher immunity can act as a shield to protect university teachers against high-intensity chaos and complexities of educational settings. What emerges from the review of the scare literature on language teacher immunity, it is positively correlated with teacher-related positive constructs (e.g., Hiver, 2017 ; Haseli Songhori et al, 2018 ; Rahimpour et al, 2020 ; Li, 2022 ). Yet, there is a dearth of literature about language teacher immunity, especially in higher education which echoes for more profound studies to investigate different aspects of language teacher immunity.…”

Mitigating Students’ Anxiety: The Role of Resilience and Mindfulness Among Chinese EFL Learners

“…Researchers have also contended that mindfulness can be improved through interferences and exercises ( Kabat-Zinn, 2003 ; Baer and Lykins, 2011 ). Mindfulness changes the educational set inside a classroom by enabling thinking, developing significance, and taking advantage of education ( Li, 2022 ). In a wanted mindful class, the teachers help their students with rebuilding significance, thinking about the educational experience, and taking the most benefit of the educational cycle ( Wang et al, 2016 ).…”